Hi,my name is Alan Woodcock.I have been bird-watching in the area for nearly fifty years and (bird ringing)since 1980.I hope to keep up to date sightings of wildlife I have seen (mainly birds)with occasional diary entries of past times.

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Brookland Lake and the river - good numbers of hirundine were flying low over the lake this morning with,100+ each of Swallow,House Martin and Swift,only 2 Sand Martin though.I was hoping for a Red-rumped,but try as I may,I just couldn`t turn a House Martin into one.A Hobby and a Kestral were seen briefly and a Grey Wagtail flew from the edge of the lake over towards the river,where 3 of this years young Grey Heron were seen trying out their fishing skills.I only saw 1 Shelduck,hopefully his mate is sitting tight on a nest somewhere. On the edge of the Sunken marsh,one of our scarce New Hythe breeding birds,a Sedge Warbler was still singing strongly from within a tangle of bramble and a Cuckoo called several times from the Eccles side of the river.I didn`t manage to find the Turtle Dove that had been reported in the area a few days ago.

16th,better day,hardly any wind and much brighter.

I was out at 05:30 this morning and managed to catch three Nightingale,two were new,one of which I caught in the Brook House area and the other at the southern end of the Streamside lake.The third bird was a re trap.

Unusually for May,we saw (3) Scaup,a pair on the reserve and a lone drake on the ARC pits.The ARC pits also produced a drake Garganey,a flyover Common Buzzard and a very nice Blue-headed Wagtail.We failed to find a Green winged Teal that had been reported on the pit earlier during the morning.

While we were having our lunch on the RSPB reserve a Red-rumped Swallow was found.We later had excellent views of the bird from the Harrison hide.Before Bob had even reached the hide the bird flew inches past his nose.